Director Bielinsky pulls a fast one in 'Nine Queens'

By SEAN AXMAKER, SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Updated 10:00 pm, Thursday, May 2, 2002

There is no honor among thieves in Fabian Bielinsky's "Nine Queens," at least not in the code of Marcos (Ricardo Darin). The world is a mercenary place, he instructs his new acolyte Juan (Gaston Pauls).

To illustrate, the camera turns to the Argentine urban jungle around them and reveals a feeding frenzy of thievery played out by the human vultures and hyenas preying on the weaker members of the pack.

Whether it's justification or explanation, we don't know, but Marcos, a con man with a history of turning on his partners, is out for every penny he can bilk out of the world. Fastidiously groomed and too well-dressed, Marcos is as much peacock as shyster.

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Played by Darin with a fascinating mixture of mercenary detachment and self-righteous justification, he's the proverbial pro who would sell out his mother for the right price; he's currently cheating his sister Valeria (Leticia Bredice) out of her inheritance and doesn't bat an eye when she calls him on it.

Easygoing Juan is a small-time hustler with an honest face and a quick-thinking ability to improvise, but a tendency to feel guilty over his victims. That's a weakness Marcos hopes to drill out of him as he runs him through his playbook of penny-ante cons, like hustling guileless old ladies and overworked waiters.

Then the nine queens, neither playing cards nor divas but a block of rare stamps at the center of a scam, fall into their lap. "This is the kind of chance you wait for all your life," Marcos gushes, dollar signs flashing in his eyes.That should be enough to set alarms ringing right there, but as the job becomes more complicated and more players become involved (including Valeria, whose hatred for Marcos puts her reliability seriously in doubt), you have to wonder just who is playing whom.

Of course, that's one of the pleasures of the cinema of scam, one of the hardest of genres to pull off and one of the most satisfying to watch when it works. This one does.

While Bielinsky doesn't bring anything new to the table, he has a smartly engineered scheme and a good poker face, and he's mastered the essential art of misdirection. It may not keep you guessing to the end, but there are enough surprises and wry revelations, right down to the last play, to make this a most satisfying cinematic confidence game.